Increased miniaturization of components, greater packaging density of integrated circuits (“ICs”), higher performance, and lower cost are ongoing goals of the computer industry. Semiconductor packaging structures continue to advance toward miniaturization, to increase the density of the components that are packaged therein while decreasing the sizes of the products that are made therefrom. This is in response to continually increasing demands on information and communication products for ever-reduced sizes, thicknesses, and costs, along with ever-increasing performance.
These increasing requirements for miniaturization are particularly noteworthy, for example, in portable information and communication devices such as cellular phones, hands-free cellular phone headsets, personal data assistants (“PDA's”), camcorders, notebook computers, and so forth. All of these devices continue to be made smaller and thinner to improve their portability. Accordingly, IC packages that are incorporated into these devices are required to be made smaller and thinner, which create problems with arranging devices on boards and other circuits. The packaging configurations that house and protect IC require them to be made smaller, thinner, and sturdier as well.
Thus, smaller and thinner integrated circuit packaging systems continue to be developed to provide low cost manufacturing, improved yields, reduction of integrated circuit packaging dimensions, and flexible stacking and integration configurations. In view of the ever-increasing need to save costs and improve efficiencies, it is more and more critical that answers be found to these problems.
Solutions to these problems have been long sought but prior developments have not taught or suggested any solutions and, thus, solutions to these problems have long eluded those skilled in the art.